CSC pulls GP software products from UK market

Outsourcer will provide support for the products until October 2013

Outsourcer CSC has confirmed speculation that it is withdrawing its former iSoft products from the UK GP IT market.

After reviewing its strategy for the UK primary care market, CSC has decided not to support its Synergy, Premiere and Ganymede GP applications beyond current contractual commitments.

CSC will provide support for these products until at least the end of October 2013 for practices in England and Northern Ireland, and March 2014 for practices in Wales.

Tola Sargeant, an analyst at TechMarketView, said CSC’s decision to pull out of the UK primary care market "appears to be the right one for the company".

She said the former iSoft and Torex applications, now sold under the different brand names, have been losing market share to rivals with newer products, and that the GP market "isn’t a core one" for CSC.

"We’ve long questioned the logic of CSC’s decision to offer its NHS National Programme for IT customers both the iSoft applications and software from rival TPP, under a subcontractor relationship it ‘acquired’ when it took over Accenture’s NPfIT contracts."

She pointed out however that around 580 GP practices in the UK use CSC’s software, representing almost 6 percent of the English market and 13-15 percent of practices in Northern Ireland and Wales.

She said, "These practices will be shocked to have to find a replacement application at relatively short notice, and seemingly without any additional funding for migration.

"For other suppliers in the GP sector, CSC’s decision is of course an unexpected bonus – the likes of EMIS, InPS and TPP will be eager to step into the breach."

CSC was lambasted last year by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) after it was revealed that the IT services company had only delivered a full patient administration system to just three NHS trusts in nine years.

The new agreement means that the NHS will not be subject to volume purchasing commitments and trusts can deploy other care systems, should they wish.

Examples of this are already taking place, where last week Accenture signed a three year deal to help West Yorkshire based health IT specialists TPP implement a full hospital system for the Airedale NHS Trust.